[BUG] npm incorrectly assumes existence of root-owned files on Termux

[VoltrexKeyva]

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have searched the existing issues

This issue exists in the latest npm version

• I am using the latest npm

Current Behavior

On Termux, npm seems to incorrectly assume the existence of files owned by root in the .npm directory when trying to either check the outdated global packages, installing a package, or updating a package; nothing in Termux is root-owned by default (and your device must be rooted to even have anything owned by root).

This behavior has started occurring since npm v8.12.0.

Example:

$ npm outdated -g
npm ERR! code EACCES
npm ERR! syscall link
npm ERR! path /data/data/com.termux/files/home/.npm/_cacache/tmp/ca13ccc3
npm ERR! dest /data/data/com.termux/files/home/.npm/_cacache/content-v2/sha512/43/a6/c7e13485e371db122c19f97a126c3d3a05e3f3050a79998bac598ab110422ff6ca2d65f0907caa47c66eb551785374e9216de04eae820a0f45c2c0cdd376
npm ERR! errno EACCES
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Your cache folder contains root-owned files, due to a bug in
npm ERR! previous versions of npm which has since been addressed.
npm ERR!
npm ERR! To permanently fix this problem, please run:
npm ERR!   sudo chown -R 10272:10272 "/data/data/com.termux/files/home/.npm"

npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR!     /data/data/com.termux/files/home/.npm/_logs/2022-07-01T02_47_45_988Z-debug-0.log

As mentioned, this can also occur when trying to install or update a package (doesn't matter if it's global or local).

Some others seems to be experiencing the same issue: #5025, and #4451 (comment)

Expected Behavior

The expected behavior is for npm to work without assuming the existence of root-owned files that doesn't actually exist, basically to not throw the aforementioned error when checking for outdated global packages, installing/updating global or local packages.

Example:

$ npm outdated -g
Package   Current  Wanted  Latest  Location               Depended by
corepack   0.10.0  0.11.2  0.11.2  node_modules/corepack  global

Steps To Reproduce

1. Download, install, and launch Termux from it's official website.
2. Update all installed packages by running apt update && apt upgrade -y.
3. Install the latest Node.js LTS release (it doesn't have to be LTS, but for the sake of the example) which bundles npm as well by running apt install nodejs-lts -y.
4. Update npm to v8.12.0 or higher by running npm i -g npm.
5. Now try to install/update the global packages, it can also be local packages; for this step, try running npm update -g, and you'll encounter this error (some details may differ depending on your environment, but it's the same error):

npm ERR! code EACCES
npm ERR! syscall link
npm ERR! path /data/data/com.termux/files/home/.npm/_cacache/tmp/ca13ccc3
npm ERR! dest /data/data/com.termux/files/home/.npm/_cacache/content-v2/sha512/43/a6/c7e13485e371db122c19f97a126c3d3a05e3f3050a79998bac598ab110422ff6ca2d65f0907caa47c66eb551785374e9216de04eae820a0f45c2c0cdd376
npm ERR! errno EACCES
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Your cache folder contains root-owned files, due to a bug in
npm ERR! previous versions of npm which has since been addressed.
npm ERR!
npm ERR! To permanently fix this problem, please run:
npm ERR!   sudo chown -R 10272:10272 "/data/data/com.termux/files/home/.npm"

npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR!     /data/data/com.termux/files/home/.npm/_logs/2022-07-01T02_47_45_988Z-debug-0.log

Environment

• npm: v8.13.2
• Node.js: v16.15.1
• OS Name: Android 11
• System Model Name: Galaxy A40 | SM-A405FN/DS
• npm config:

; "user" config from /data/data/com.termux/files/home/.npmrc

//registry.npmjs.org/:_authToken = (protected)
foreground-scripts = true

; node bin location = /data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin/node
; node version = v16.15.1
; npm local prefix = /data/data/com.termux/files/home
; npm version = 8.13.2
; cwd = /data/data/com.termux/files/home
; HOME = /data/data/com.termux/files/home
; Run `npm config ls -l` to show all defaults.

[Haiz14]

I am having the same error prompt when i do npm install nodemon on termux

[azurenekowo]

Same! I thought I'm the only one having this issue.

I have a Samsung A50S, npm v8.13.2, v18.4.0, also using Termux.

npm ERR! code EACCES
npm ERR! syscall link                                             npm ERR! path /data/data/com.termux/files/home/.npm/_cacache/tmp/d728ef7a                                                           npm ERR! dest /data/data/com.termux/files/home/.npm/_cacache/content-v2/sha512/76/f3/b9339dafee6ec3cbdebe5d49f35cdb10ff49e9b18a54e9d2f6d39900b440ee7acc28cf7694ddb87550ca0ae1c426706b41d584722caaa9f835e2d3997316
npm ERR! errno -13                                                npm ERR!
npm ERR! Your cache folder contains root-owned files, due to a bug in                                                               npm ERR! previous versions of npm which has since been addressed. npm ERR!
npm ERR! To permanently fix this problem, please run:
npm ERR!   sudo chown -R 10455:10455 "/data/data/com.termux/files/home/.npm"                                                        
npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR!     /data/data/com.termux/files/home/.npm/_logs/2022-07-11T16_22_26_481Z-debug-0.log

[azurenekowo]

Ok so after doing

$ pkg uninstall nodejs

And run

$ pkg install nodejs-lts

It worked fine. No idea how.

[VoltrexKeyva]

It worked fine. No idea how.

That's because reinstalling Node.js replaces the currently installed npm with the one shipped with that Node.js binary, as of writing this, the current Node.js LTS release from the Termux repositories ship npm v18.11.x which this issue isn't present in.

As mentioned, this issue has been occurring since v8.12.0.

[nlf]

this actually has nothing to do with root ownership, the error messaging there is not great. any EACCES or EPERM error relating to your cache directory triggers this exact warning.

do you have write access to the cache directory? what filesystem is it? can one of you seeing this problem post the full debug log here?

[VoltrexKeyva]

this actually has nothing to do with root ownership, the error messaging there is not great. any EACCES or EPERM error relating to your cache directory triggers this exact warning.

do you have write access to the cache directory? what filesystem is it? can one of you seeing this problem post the full debug log here?

In my case I have full write access to the npm cache directory, if I didn't then any npm version older than 8.12.0 would've also failed with the same error, which they don't.

I don't think the type of file system is relevant here but my device's file system type is ext4.

The debug log:

$ npm update -g --verbose

Debug log

npm verb cli /data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin/node /data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin/npm
npm info using npm@8.13.2
npm info using node@v16.15.1
npm timing npm:load:whichnode Completed in 2ms
npm timing config:load:defaults Completed in 11ms
npm timing config:load:file:/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/npmrc Completed in 27ms
npm timing config:load:builtin Completed in 28ms
npm timing config:load:cli Completed in 16ms
npm timing config:load:env Completed in 3ms
npm timing config:load:project Completed in 21ms
npm timing config:load:file:/data/data/com.termux/files/home/.npmrc Completed in 7ms
npm timing config:load:user Completed in 9ms
npm timing config:load:file:/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/etc/npmrc Completed in 1ms
npm timing config:load:global Completed in 1ms
npm timing config:load:validate Completed in 1ms
npm timing config:load:credentials Completed in 5ms
npm timing config:load:setEnvs Completed in 6ms
npm timing config:load Completed in 107ms
npm timing npm:load:configload Completed in 109ms
npm timing npm:load:mkdirpcache Completed in 5ms
npm timing npm:load:mkdirplogs Completed in 3ms
npm verb title npm update
npm verb argv "update" "--global" "--loglevel" "verbose"
npm timing npm:load:setTitle Completed in 7ms
npm timing config:load:flatten Completed in 17ms
npm timing npm:load:display Completed in 45ms
npm verb logfile logs-max:10 dir:/data/data/com.termux/files/home/.npm/_logs
npm verb logfile /data/data/com.termux/files/home/.npm/_logs/2022-07-13T23_20_12_621Z-debug-0.log
npm timing npm:load:logFile Completed in 33ms
npm timing npm:load:timers Completed in 0ms
npm timing npm:load:configScope Completed in 1ms
npm timing npm:load Completed in 214ms
npm timing arborist:ctor Completed in 4ms
npm timing idealTree:init Completed in 30ms
npm timing idealTree:userRequests Completed in 14ms
npm http fetch GET 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/corepack 1535ms (cache updated)
npm http fetch GET 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/npm 1504ms (cache updated)
npm timing idealTree:#root Completed in 3116ms
npm timing idealTree:node_modules/corepack Completed in 0ms
npm timing idealTree:node_modules/npm Completed in 0ms
npm timing idealTree:buildDeps Completed in 3124ms
npm timing idealTree:fixDepFlags Completed in 4ms
npm timing idealTree Completed in 3184ms
npm timing command:update Completed in 3245ms
npm verb type system
npm verb stack FetchError: Invalid response body while trying to fetch https://registry.npmjs.org/corepack: EACCES: permission denied, link '/data/data/com.termux/files/home/.npm/_cacache/tmp/ecbbb0fd' -> '/data/data/com.termux/files/home/.npm/_cacache/content-v2/sha512/8b/29/d8d04509b38b390ebcba4956b8fb2955f88570f48241edffb01128b2dcdfb4580c453db04a422a8046fb9fdf7c7c9c31a25a64ac280c8f7892511b0798a7'
npm verb stack     at /data/data/com.termux/files/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/minipass-fetch/lib/body.js:168:15
npm verb stack     at async RegistryFetcher.packument (/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/pacote/lib/registry.js:99:25)
npm verb stack     at async RegistryFetcher.manifest (/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/pacote/lib/registry.js:124:23)
npm verb stack     at async Arborist.[nodeFromEdge] (/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/@npmcli/arborist/lib/arborist/build-ideal-tree.js:1108:19)
npm verb stack     at async Arborist.[buildDepStep] (/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/@npmcli/arborist/lib/arborist/build-ideal-tree.js:976:11)
npm verb stack     at async Arborist.buildIdealTree (/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/@npmcli/arborist/lib/arborist/build-ideal-tree.js:218:7)
npm verb stack     at async Arborist.reify (/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/@npmcli/arborist/lib/arborist/reify.js:153:5)
npm verb stack     at async Update.exec (/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/lib/commands/update.js:65:5)
npm verb stack     at async module.exports (/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/lib/cli.js:78:5)
npm verb cwd /data/data/com.termux/files/home
npm verb Linux 4.4.177-24085844
npm verb node v16.15.1
npm verb npm  v8.13.2
npm ERR! code EACCES
npm ERR! syscall link
npm ERR! path /data/data/com.termux/files/home/.npm/_cacache/tmp/ecbbb0fd
npm ERR! dest /data/data/com.termux/files/home/.npm/_cacache/content-v2/sha512/8b/29/d8d04509b38b390ebcba4956b8fb2955f88570f48241edffb01128b2dcdfb4580c453db04a422a8046fb9fdf7c7c9c31a25a64ac280c8f7892511b0798a7
npm ERR! errno EACCES
npm verb FetchError: Invalid response body while trying to fetch https://registry.npmjs.org/corepack: EACCES: permission denied, link '/data/data/com.termux/files/home/.npm/_cacache/tmp/ecbbb0fd' -> '/data/data/com.termux/files/home/.npm/_cacache/content-v2/sha512/8b/29/d8d04509b38b390ebcba4956b8fb2955f88570f48241edffb01128b2dcdfb4580c453db04a422a8046fb9fdf7c7c9c31a25a64ac280c8f7892511b0798a7'
    at /data/data/com.termux/files/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/minipass-fetch/lib/body.js:168:15
    at async RegistryFetcher.packument (/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/pacote/lib/registry.js:99:25)
    at async RegistryFetcher.manifest (/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/pacote/lib/registry.js:124:23)
    at async Arborist.[nodeFromEdge] (/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/@npmcli/arborist/lib/arborist/build-ideal-tree.js:1108:19)
    at async Arborist.[buildDepStep] (/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/@npmcli/arborist/lib/arborist/build-ideal-tree.js:976:11)
    at async Arborist.buildIdealTree (/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/@npmcli/arborist/lib/arborist/build-ideal-tree.js:218:7)
    at async Arborist.reify (/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/@npmcli/arborist/lib/arborist/reify.js:153:5)
    at async Update.exec (/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/lib/commands/update.js:65:5)
    at async module.exports (/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/lib/cli.js:78:5)
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Your cache folder contains root-owned files, due to a bug in
npm ERR! previous versions of npm which has since been addressed.
npm ERR!
npm ERR! To permanently fix this problem, please run:
npm ERR!   sudo chown -R 10272:10272 "/data/data/com.termux/files/home/.npm"
npm verb exit 1
npm timing npm Completed in 3842ms
npm verb unfinished npm timer reify 1657754413199
npm verb unfinished npm timer reify:loadTrees 1657754413245
npm verb code 1

npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR!     /data/data/com.termux/files/home/.npm/_logs/2022-07-13T23_20_12_621Z-debug-0.log

Debug log for the newer npm v8.15.0 release

npm verb cli /data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin/node /data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin/npm
npm info using npm@8.15.0
npm info using node@v16.15.1
npm timing npm:load:whichnode Completed in 1ms
npm timing config:load:defaults Completed in 9ms
npm timing config:load:file:/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/npmrc Completed in 13ms
npm timing config:load:builtin Completed in 14ms
npm timing config:load:cli Completed in 13ms
npm timing config:load:env Completed in 2ms
npm timing config:load:project Completed in 11ms
npm timing config:load:file:/data/data/com.termux/files/home/.npmrc Completed in 9ms
npm timing config:load:user Completed in 9ms
npm timing config:load:file:/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/etc/npmrc Completed in 9ms
npm timing config:load:global Completed in 10ms
npm timing config:load:validate Completed in 1ms
npm timing config:load:credentials Completed in 6ms
npm timing config:load:setEnvs Completed in 5ms
npm timing config:load Completed in 85ms
npm timing npm:load:configload Completed in 86ms
npm timing npm:load:mkdirpcache Completed in 5ms
npm timing npm:load:mkdirplogs Completed in 1ms
npm verb title npm update
npm verb argv "update" "--global" "--loglevel" "verbose"
npm timing npm:load:setTitle Completed in 6ms
npm timing config:load:flatten Completed in 16ms
npm timing npm:load:display Completed in 42ms
npm verb logfile logs-max:10 dir:/data/data/com.termux/files/home/.npm/_logs
npm verb logfile /data/data/com.termux/files/home/.npm/_logs/2022-07-21T13_52_24_138Z-debug-0.log
npm timing npm:load:logFile Completed in 32ms
npm timing npm:load:timers Completed in 1ms
npm timing npm:load:configScope Completed in 1ms
npm timing npm:load Completed in 183ms
npm timing arborist:ctor Completed in 6ms
npm timing idealTree:init Completed in 34ms
npm timing idealTree:userRequests Completed in 16ms
npm http fetch GET 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/corepack 1853ms (cache miss)
npm http fetch GET 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/npm 1921ms (cache miss)
npm http fetch GET 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/prettier 685ms (cache miss)
npm timing idealTree:#root Completed in 4593ms
npm timing idealTree:node_modules/corepack Completed in 0ms
npm timing idealTree:node_modules/npm Completed in 0ms
npm timing idealTree:node_modules/prettier Completed in 0ms
npm timing idealTree:buildDeps Completed in 4606ms
npm timing idealTree:fixDepFlags Completed in 7ms
npm timing idealTree Completed in 4673ms
npm timing command:update Completed in 4771ms
npm verb type system
npm verb stack FetchError: Invalid response body while trying to fetch https://registry.npmjs.org/corepack: EACCES: permission denied, link '/data/data/com.termux/files/home/.npm/_cacache/tmp/9b99c620' -> '/data/data/com.termux/files/home/.npm/_cacache/content-v2/sha512/8b/29/d8d04509b38b390ebcba4956b8fb2955f88570f48241edffb01128b2dcdfb4580c453db04a422a8046fb9fdf7c7c9c31a25a64ac280c8f7892511b0798a7'
npm verb stack     at /data/data/com.termux/files/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/minipass-fetch/lib/body.js:168:15
npm verb stack     at async RegistryFetcher.packument (/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/pacote/lib/registry.js:99:25)
npm verb stack     at async RegistryFetcher.manifest (/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/pacote/lib/registry.js:124:23)
npm verb stack     at async Arborist.[nodeFromEdge] (/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/@npmcli/arborist/lib/arborist/build-ideal-tree.js:1108:19)
npm verb stack     at async Arborist.[buildDepStep] (/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/@npmcli/arborist/lib/arborist/build-ideal-tree.js:976:11)
npm verb stack     at async Arborist.buildIdealTree (/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/@npmcli/arborist/lib/arborist/build-ideal-tree.js:218:7)
npm verb stack     at async Arborist.reify (/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/@npmcli/arborist/lib/arborist/reify.js:154:5)
npm verb stack     at async Update.exec (/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/lib/commands/update.js:65:5)
npm verb stack     at async module.exports (/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/lib/cli.js:78:5)
npm verb cwd /data/data/com.termux/files/home
npm verb Linux 4.4.177-24392161
npm verb node v16.15.1
npm verb npm  v8.15.0
npm ERR! code EACCES
npm ERR! syscall link
npm ERR! path /data/data/com.termux/files/home/.npm/_cacache/tmp/9b99c620
npm ERR! dest /data/data/com.termux/files/home/.npm/_cacache/content-v2/sha512/8b/29/d8d04509b38b390ebcba4956b8fb2955f88570f48241edffb01128b2dcdfb4580c453db04a422a8046fb9fdf7c7c9c31a25a64ac280c8f7892511b0798a7
npm ERR! errno EACCES
npm verb FetchError: Invalid response body while trying to fetch https://registry.npmjs.org/corepack: EACCES: permission denied, link '/data/data/com.termux/files/home/.npm/_cacache/tmp/9b99c620' -> '/data/data/com.termux/files/home/.npm/_cacache/content-v2/sha512/8b/29/d8d04509b38b390ebcba4956b8fb2955f88570f48241edffb01128b2dcdfb4580c453db04a422a8046fb9fdf7c7c9c31a25a64ac280c8f7892511b0798a7'
    at /data/data/com.termux/files/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/minipass-fetch/lib/body.js:168:15
    at async RegistryFetcher.packument (/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/pacote/lib/registry.js:99:25)
    at async RegistryFetcher.manifest (/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/pacote/lib/registry.js:124:23)
    at async Arborist.[nodeFromEdge] (/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/@npmcli/arborist/lib/arborist/build-ideal-tree.js:1108:19)
    at async Arborist.[buildDepStep] (/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/@npmcli/arborist/lib/arborist/build-ideal-tree.js:976:11)
    at async Arborist.buildIdealTree (/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/@npmcli/arborist/lib/arborist/build-ideal-tree.js:218:7)
    at async Arborist.reify (/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/@npmcli/arborist/lib/arborist/reify.js:154:5)
    at async Update.exec (/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/lib/commands/update.js:65:5)
    at async module.exports (/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/lib/cli.js:78:5)
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Your cache folder contains root-owned files, due to a bug in
npm ERR! previous versions of npm which has since been addressed.
npm ERR!
npm ERR! To permanently fix this problem, please run:
npm ERR!   sudo chown -R 10272:10272 "/data/data/com.termux/files/home/.npm"
npm verb exit 1
npm timing npm Completed in 5446ms
npm verb unfinished npm timer reify 1658411544793
npm verb unfinished npm timer reify:loadTrees 1658411544869
npm verb code 1

npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR!     /data/data/com.termux/files/home/.npm/_logs/2022-07-21T13_52_24_138Z-debug-0.log

[VoltrexKeyva]

@nlf any updates on this?

[Haiz14]

@VoltrexMaster just doing pkg uninstall node works for me

[VoltrexKeyva]

@VoltrexMaster just doing pkg uninstall node works for me

This is not an actual fix for the issue at hand, doing that just uninstalls Node.js, and reinstalling Node.js will install an older version of npm (v8.11.x) where this issue is not present.

The error I've denoted in my issue started occuring since npm v8.12.x which is still not fixed even in npm v8.15.x.

[GameratorCreator]

The solution that worked for me was to set the cache location for npm like so: npm config set cache /path-to-tmp --global
npm is trying to use a cache location that does not exist or it has no access to.

[VoltrexKeyva]

The solution that worked for me was to set the cache location for npm like so: npm config set cache /path-to-tmp --global
npm is trying to use a cache location that does not exist or it has no access to.

In this case, npm does have full access to the default cache directory which is located in ~/.npm, any npm version equal to or older than v8.11.x works just fine, but any npm version equal to or higher than v8.12.x does not, this is an issue with npm itself, not Termux nor the file system, or the cache directory.

I suspect there is an issue with Arborist which causes this issue, although I'm not familiar with it's codebase so I'm unsure what exactly causes this issue.